Who will lobby for the International Criminal Court?

As has been discussed here before, Kenya is in the midst of a diplomatic campaign to get the International Criminal Court to shelve its prosecutions of six important Kenyans, including the deputy prime minster. The reporting I’ve seen indicates that Kenyan diplomats have been jetting to various African capitals, seeking support. This standoff matters. If Kenya is able to marshal enough support, it could pressure the court to let its own courts handle matters through national prosecutions. Or Kenya and its allies might persaude the UN Security Council to order a delay in the ICC proceedings, which it is authorized to do. In either case, Kenya will have won an important battle.

What can the ICC itself do in response? The institution is a court, not a political organization or a government, and it isn’t really built to lobby (although the prosecutor and certain of the judges have tried their hand on occassion). Activist groups can do their part. But, in essence, the ICC relies on its member states to stand up for it. You’ll no doubt be shocked to hear that most states with diplomatic capital aren’t spending it on behalf of the ICC.

And so the ICC is doing the best it can with what it’s got. This week, the official who has been designated as the president of the assembly of all ICC members (formally called the Assembly of States Parties) headed to the region to try his hand at lobbying. And who is the president of the Assembly of States Parties? It is Christian Wenaweser, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary from, wait for it, Liechtenstein. According to this account, he met with the Kenyan president and other members of the diplomatic community. No doubt his meetings were useful.

But however able, Mr. Wenaweser is not going to accomplish much without the backing of some much more powerful national players. And that then raises the critical question hovering over the whole enterprise in the Hague: will the more than one hundred states that agreed to create the court use their diplomatic muscle to defend it?